Company: Educare Press
Industry: Higher Education, Education K-12, Cartography, Journalism / Publishing
Location: Seattle, WA, United States of America

THE CROWN JEWEL - WALDSEEMULLER 1507 MAP - AMERICA'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE

The Library of Congress has purchased the only known copy of a rare World Map that sheds a teeny ray of light on the discovery and naming of America.The price tag was $10 million.Often referred to as America's Birth Certificate, this 1507 Waldseemuller World Map was the first to show the continents of North and South America, and the first to show the name America.The word America was boldly inscribed across what is today the middle of South America (near northern Patagonia or southern Brazil).How it got there, and why, has been a bone of contention among historians and scholars for decades.If Columbus discovered the new world why was it called after Vespucci?

An additional $4 million secured the Carta Marina, another fragile cartographic manuscript of the known world in the late 1400s.Together, these priceless charts afford us a rare view into the world of Columbus, Vespucci and Cabot and an exquisite original of the evolving technologies of both woodcutting and the printing press.The 1507 Waldseemuller World Map was published 15 years after Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola, and 10 years after John Cabot set foot in Newfoundland.today, the map is on display in the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress. In 1500, the Duke of Lorraine and the Canon of Saint Die des Vosges formed an intellectual group, known as the Gymnasium Vosgense, to expand the knowledge of cosmography and geometry.They set up workshop in a Benedictine monastery at Saint Die des Vosges, a small town located near Strasbourg on the River Rhine adjacent to the borders of France, Germany and Switzerland.The printing press had recently been invented in Gutenberg.Gautier Lud, a wealthy member of the group, purchased a press for the Gymnasium and it was installed in the monastery.The Gymnasium employed wood-block carvers from Strasbourg, and printed books and other publications at the monastery.

The Duke knew Vespucci and had read his books (Mundus Novus and his Voyages).Matthias Ringmann had contributed to the translation of Vespucci's Three Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and assisted with the printing of one of the many foreign language editions.It was the Duke's plan to produce a large-scale map of the world reflecting the newly discovered Fourth Continent.In 1504 the Duke retained Martin Waldseemüller, who was an expert in the craft of wood-block printing, to oversee the production of the map.He compiled details from Vespucci, and various other sources, as new information made its way back from more and more Atlantic voyages.

The attribution of the name AMERICA to Vespucci was made in Latin on the lower corner of Waldseemuller's Map.His young assistant, Mathias Ringmann, is probably responsible for the mistake since his duties included naming conventions and translations.The following is a translation from the Latin.

"...a fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vespuccius; I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part Americus; who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, and so to name it Amerige that is the land of Americus, or America, since both Europa and Asia got their names from women." As soon as Waldseemuller's map was published in 1507 there were objections and protestations regarding the palpable error - Vespucci's role in the discovery and naming of America.By 1513, Waldseemuller compiled and published a replacement map, in which he dropped the name America and gave credit to Columbus for the discovery of the New World.Waldseemuller replaced the word America with the anonymous Terra Incognita (unknown land).

More than a thousand copies of the map were distributed to universities, churches, and libraries, including the private collections of the wealthy, in Europe.It was too late to retract the mistake.Later in the mid 1500s, when Mercator brought out his World Projection, he refined the name further by adding North and South to the word America.It has been this way ever since.After Mercator, it was generally accepted that the new continent had two distinct divisions - North America and South America.Waldseemuller was forgotten.

The matter would have rested there, but in 1838, an antique collector at a Paris street market discovered documents describing Waldseemuller's map.The manuscript contained Waldseemuller's explanation, in Latin, of how he guessed that the word America possibly derived from the Latin version of Vespucci's name.Waldseemuller's supposition gained widespread acceptance for a second time.

In 1901, a single copy of Waldseemuller's 1507 World Map was discovered by Father Joseph Fisher, a Jesuit historian, who was carrying out some historical research in the library of Prince von Waldburg zu Wolfegg-Waldsee at his Castle, in Wurttenberg, Germany.When he opened a manuscript he discovered 12 large sheets of fragile paper that had been carefully bound with other antique maps.They were in mint condition.This map is the only known print of the original 1,000 copies.

Thanks to the Library of Congress and this single most expensive acquisition, this global treasure - Waldseemuller's 1507 World Map - is on display for the general public.It offers a compelling view, if a little cloudy, into our recent past.

Now a duo-tone poster size edition is available from http://www.educarepress.com in Seattle.It is accompanied by a brand new publication (Waldseemuller World Map 1507) that describes the map in detail, plate by plate, translates the important Latin descriptions and highlights the fabulous historic value of the piece.

Timothy Harris (waldseemuller@hotmail.com)
Phone: 206 784-2658